


i called for executioners

by ohmcgee



Category: The Woods (Comics)
Genre: Gen, broken boys bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 11:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7169432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Or maybe something happened to him that just fucked him up beyond repair. Like Casey."</p>
            </blockquote>





	i called for executioners

**Author's Note:**

> READ THE WOODS. WRITE THE WOODS. DRAW THE WOODS. JOIN USSSSSSSSSSS. Please?

"I get it, you know," Calder says as he sits down next to Isaac. Calder's the only one who knows where he goes when he gets like this. People are careful when they don't want to be found, Calder's noticed, but they never suspect him. They never really think about him at all.  
  
Isaac doesn't say anything, just keeps staring out across the violet-tinted lake with his arms wrapped around his legs, his chin on his knees, his eyes glassy and wet.  
  
"I mean not me personally," Calder rambles. He doesn't even know if Isaac is listening to him. He doesn't know if he cares. "But my brother, yeah. This whole push everything good and swell out of your life so you don't have anything to be disappointed by anymore? That's pretty much him all over."  
  
Isaac shuffles his legs around, but he still doesn't look at him.  
  
"Casey was never like, a big fluffy bunny or anything," Calder says. "But after our Mom and Dad died, everything good in him just kind of...dried up. He started hating any kind of happiness at all. He said it was just fake -- that everything was fake."  
  
"A-Adrian was like that," Isaac says quietly, into his knees. "I used to say he hated joy."  
  
"Maybe he did," Calder shrugs, leaning back on his hands. The sunset is wicked ferocious this time of day and he wonders if there are any art supplies left in the art rooms. "Or maybe something happened to him that just fucked him up beyond repair. Like Casey."  
  
They're quiet for a few moments, then Doctor Robot crawls out of Isaac's jacket and Calder tries not to freak out.  
  
"I really fucked up," Isaac sniffles. "I thought -- I thought Ben --"  
  
"Here's what I know," Calder says, still trying not to freak out when Doctor Robot tries sniffing his fingers. "Everybody fucks up. Like, all the time. There's, you know, varying degrees of it. I made a chart, do you wanna --"  
  
"Maybe later." Isaac says, scooping Doctor Robot up.  
  
"Anyway," Calder continues. "We're people. If we didn't fuck up, we wouldn't be like, living and moving on and shit. You made a mistake and leaned on someone because you thought that maybe, just maybe it would make you feel safe, feel like home. You didn't, however, turn us all over to raving cannibal lunatics or whatnot, so you see what I mean by the varying degrees thing? My chart is really --"  
  
"Thanks, Calder," Isaac says, finally actually smiling, sort of, before turning back to the lake and going quiet again for a few minutes before sighing and running his fingers through Doctor Robot's fur. "Do you think Adrian every really cared about me?"  
  
Calder feels his chest tighten up. He tilts his head up and looks up at the weird patterns the stars make in the sky here. He and Casey got lost in the woods once when Casey convinced Gran to let them go on an overnight field trip and Calder taught him how to use the stars to find their way back. Casey called him a nerd, a geek, and mocked him endlessly for being so pathetic, but a couple of weeks later Calder came home and found a dented and scratched up telescope in his room.  
  
"Yeah," Calder says, closing his eyes. "Of course he did."


End file.
